Quote:
Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao A lot of people only realize how deficient and hollow the 'life over livelihood' slogan sounds once their livelihood is lost, and we're going to see a huge influx in this category soon enough.
Prepare to hear a lot of 'Oh but I didn't imagine my livelihood would be lost when I said that!'.
These are difficult times, and it's about time a lot of us learnt the lesson how deeply livelihoods affect lives, esp. for those not fortunate enough to have buffers protecting them, so we're a bit more empathetic when the debate rears up repeatedly in the next months and years. |
This!!
I have nothing but respect for the administration. But, if we look at the justifications given for the lockdown, the stated goal of "we have to save each and every life" does not even appear plausible.
Aside from the structural faults in the economy being pried open at this time, what the shutdown is really laying bare is that fear is the biggest culprit here.
Irrational and
misplaced fear.
Yes, many people are dying from Covid; and more will undoubtedly die. I am not being in any way dismissive or disrespectful of those lives lost, or of people fighting the illness currently. As I have said in other threads, we are all at risk in my own house.
But, let us be clear that a Covid infection is NOT a death sentence. Far from it in fact. Going by current trends, almost 95% of those infected appear to recover well with some not even feeling the infection. At the very least, the prognosis for Covid patients appears to be as good or as bad as most other pathogens that we have encountered in recent times. In fact, going by
asymptomatic positives that are bubbling up just by the sheer chance of those people getting tested, there are mounting questions about whether Covid's fatality rate is being
vastly overestimated.
So really, the only thing that this virus seems to have going for it is it's transmissibility. Nothing else.
During a difficult time like this, media houses have taken the predictable line of reporting only infections and deaths. But, administrations could have, and should have, borne the torch of courage. They should have urged people to take reasonable precautions to protect themselves and to protect the weak and the vulnerable, while going about their lives in a cautious manner. Those who are fearful should be allowed to stay home to a degree and employers should be encouraged (not mandated) to help manage this crisis with creative WFH schemes. In the meantime, we should have attacked the healthcare problem on a war footing, which we are admittedly doing now (at least I hope we are).
I remember how after 9/11, all administrations went on overdrive to convince people to live their lives while remaining unafraid, and to choose flying as a means of travel.
But now, instead of taking a bold stand and allaying people's fears, administrations world-wide are stoking the fear that death is knocking on each of our doors at this time. This is really hard for me to understand. Because no such thing is happening, at least not on the scale that justifies the deep economic pain that is being inflicted on people.
We have taken one crisis and then willfully turned it into a twin headed disaster. Instead of trying to reduce the risk and then accept the remaining risk, we are trying to completely eliminate the risk, which is impossible. And in the process, we are unleashing a tsunami of pain on people in another form. A tsunami that will long outlive the virus, especially with the culture of fear that has effectively been seeded into people's minds.
My wife is insisting that I take a full bath after I enter the house even if I were to take 10 steps into the empty lobby of our building to pick up the milk. I am in the presence of no one when I go to the lobby at 8 am in the morning. I touch nothing except the milk packets. On the way to the lobby and back, I open doors with my elbows and feet. When I get home, I wash my hands thoroughly. And yet, the fear is so high in my wife's mind that every trip to fetch milk is turning into a domestic firestorm at home.
If we are going to be perpetually afraid, how are we going to send our kids to school? How are we to have friends or guests over? How are we to allow professional service providers to help us with our lives? How are we to go out for a meal? How are we to travel by buses or planes or trains? How are we to live our lives?
Literally, we have initiated a response so massive in its mindset change that we are pulling the rug from under our own feet.
If we have to think of this in different terms, here is
the most recent example of young men in the peak of their lives who literally gave up their lives to keep us safe. The risks for these young men are so high that there is a 50% chance that each one of their team will not make it back to base at the end of a mission, let alone come home in one piece after being deployed in the front. I mean, we expect people to willingly die for us. And yet, as a society we are afraid of a virus that has a less then 5% chance of killing us, provided that we get infected in the first place which in and of itself does not carry a 100% probability.
I tell you we don't even deserve the army or the navy or the air force or the thousand other professions where people routinely accept far greater risks for their countries and societies.